


other lovers give you no luck

by its_tortle



Series: tumblr drabbles and ficlets [12]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Awkward Conversations, Bisexual Steve Rogers, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Getting Together, Jealous Bucky Barnes, Jealousy, M/M, Natasha Romanov Is a Good Bro, Originally Posted on Tumblr, Post-Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Short One Shot, Tumblr Prompt, Wordcount: 100-1.000, no specified timeline though
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-18
Updated: 2021-02-18
Packaged: 2021-03-13 22:36:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 997
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29533485
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/its_tortle/pseuds/its_tortle
Summary: based on the prompt "i'm not jealous." "you're clearly jealous." for the lovelyjaeda.bucky finds out about the dates natasha set steve up on.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers
Series: tumblr drabbles and ficlets [12]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1951201
Comments: 8
Kudos: 127





	other lovers give you no luck

**Author's Note:**

> i put this up on tumblr two days ago and had no intention of posting it here, but turns out it's over 900 words and people quite liked it so i might as well :)
> 
> original post [here](https://its-tortle.tumblr.com/post/643314473704226816/im-sorry-and-41-with-stucky-if-its-not-too-much).
> 
> title from the king by conan gray.

“Natalia won’t stop trying to set me up with people,” Bucky announces as he drops himself down on the sofa beside Steve. 

He’s holding a big cup of coffee in one hand, a novel in the other. His hair is in its usual wispy bun and he looks so pretty that Steve, almost subconsciously, switches from the sketch he was doing of Alpine to a new page in his sketchbook and begins to trace the curve of Bucky’s cheekbone with his pencil. Like he doesn't already have enough drawings of him in this very notebook.

“She does that,” he sighs. 

Bucky raises an eyebrow.

“She set me up with like half of D.C. a few years ago. Before we found you.” He runs his finger down the bridge of Bucky’s nose on his paper to blend the lead. 

When he looks back up at the real Bucky, there’s a frown forming between his eyebrows. “Did you- I mean, did it work?”

“Clearly not,” Steve laughs.

“But you went out with people,” Bucky continues. “Dames, I mean. Women.”

Steve’s pencil stops moving altogether. “Yeah, Buck. What? Is it that unbelievable to you that I can get a date?”

“No,” Bucky says quickly. “No, of course not. I just-”

“You just, what?”

Bucky is silent for a long moment. He stares into his coffee, which is probably going cold. 

Steve doesn't really know where any of this is coming from, what Bucky is feeling. He feels like he struck a nerve, but he doesn’t know which one. He forgoes returning to his sketch in favor of watching the real thing before him, Bucky worrying his bottom lip between his teeth. It definitely shouldn’t be as attractive to Steve as it is.

“Did any of them stick?” Bucky asks eventually. “I mean, did you find someone?”

Steve’s frown deepens. “Again, clearly not. Most of them were there for Cap and didn’t really want to get to know me at all. I mean, Cap and I aren’t really the same person.”

“Yeah,” Bucky smiles. “You’re much more of an asshole.”

Steve glares at him, but there’s no heat behind it.

Bucky takes a sip of his coffee.

"But, um-” Steve thinks for a moment. “There was one girl, Emma. She was great. She liked art and baseball and had a really cute cat. She would listen to me ramble about super specific stuff for way too long without getting annoyed. We went out like six or seven times but then she got transferred to a position in Chicago and it just didn’t make sense.”

Bucky huffs out what was probably supposed to be a laugh, but doesn't come out sounding quite like one. “Sounds great.”

Why is this awkward? It shouldn’t be. Bucky talked to him about his numerous dates for hours sometimes, back in their shitty Flatbush apartment. Steve would smile and laugh in all the right places and wonder why he went to bed with a weird tightening in his chest -- it took him way too long to figure out what it was, that he wanted to be one Bucky took out dancing and felt up in the back alleys.

He’s never been on this end of the conversation, and he can’t figure out how to say the right things. 

“Yeah, she was swell.”

Bucky tucks his knees up to his chest and keeps his eyes trained on Alpine as she jumps up onto the living room cabinet.

Still feeling awkward, Steve turns back to his sketch. He’s trying to get the curve of Bucky’s lips right, which is always the hardest part. They always come out looking too pretty to be real or not like Bucky’s. 

“I listen to you talk about random shit a lot,” Bucky utters suddenly, still watching Alpine.

Steve startles. He’s about to open his mouth when Bucky continues.

“And I like baseball, and have a cute cat, even if she’s a little bit of a demon a lot of the time. I know I don’t know much about art, but I love your art. And I took you to the Met once for your birthday, remember?”

Steve just looks at him, not quite sure how to voice the million things running through his mind. “Buck, I- Of course I remember. Are you jealous?”

“I’m not jealous.” 

But Bucky says it so quickly and he’s looking down at his lap and  _ blushing _ , and Steve has never felt more hopeful and in love in his life.

“You’re clearly jealous.”

Bucky looks up slowly, nervously. Steve can see the anxiety cloud his pretty eyes. Stormy oceans of endless blue.

They both just look at each other for a long moment. Two, three, four long moments.

“What if I am?” Bucky asks into the silence of the room.

Steve feels a smile tug at the corners of his mouth. “Then maybe we should tell Nat to stop setting us up with random women.”

Bucky grins. He grins so widely and brightly that he looks almost like himself at twenty-two, wide-eyed and young and hopeful. 

“Can I take you to the Met tomorrow? You can ramble for as long as you want and I’ll probably get distracted, but I’ll try my best to listen. Is that gonna cut it?”

Steve lets the joy he feels building up underneath his skin materialize in the form of a wide grin and a breathy laugh.

He wants to take the jump, so he does.

“Only if you make it up to me preemptively.”

Bucky raises an amused eyebrow, but doesn’t object in the slightest.

Steve tosses his sketchbook onto the table and moves toward Bucky before he’s even fully made up his mind to do so.

Kissing Bucky feels like coming home. It feels like a warm cup of tea and crawling into bed after a long day. It feels warm and electric and beautiful.

Kissing Emma never felt anything like this, and Bucky really had nothing to worry about.

**Author's Note:**

> comments and kudos are so dearly appreciated <3
> 
> find me on [tumblr](https://its-tortle.tumblr.com/)!


End file.
